Made me the Happiest
by IAmKayDubs
Summary: It seems that all of Seijuro's sweet words and kind advances have finally begun to have an effect on Gou. She makes the choice to ask him out, but there are a few obstacles, as to be expected. It might not be the fairy tale beginning, but there may be enough room for a happy ending.


_'Gou-chan! Hey, how are you?'_

_'Hey, Gou-chan! I haven't seen you around in a while, how have you been?'_

_'Gou-chan, how have you and the swim team been doing?'_

At first she found the constant advances annoying, idiotic even. As time passed, however, she began to warm up to the guy who was always seeking her out. With a kind smile and a big teddy bear demeanor, he couldn't be all that bad, right?

Gou smiled to herself as she thought of the Samezuka captain. _'Maybe… Maybe I could ask him out?' _Gou pondered the idea. He's already made hints at it; it wouldn't be an absurd idea for her to make a definite move. Of course, there was the issue of Rin. She didn't really care what he thought when it came to her dating, but she knew Rin's bitter attitude towards the idea of her and the captain together would cause so many problems.

So, she decided to go talk to him.

After getting cleared by the front desk at Samezuka, Gou went up to her brothers room. When she knocked on the door, and was greeted by Nitori.

"Oh, hello Kou-chan!"

"Hello, Nitori-kun. Is Rin here?" Gou gave a gentle smile.

To answer her question, Rin came up behind Nitori. "Gou? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

Rin raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "Sure… come on in."

Gou nodded as she stepped past Nitori and Rin. Rin sat down on his bed, allowing Gou to sit next to him.

"Nitori-kun, I may need you for backup." Gou said, earning a worried look from Rin, and a confused one from Nitori.

"Okay, what did you want to talk about?" Rin asked, still a bit worried.

"It's about Seijuro."

Rin's eyebrows furrowed and a snarl broke out on his face. "What did that little punk do to you? I swear to god—"

Gou waved her hands and shook her head. "He didn't do anything!" Rin shut his mouth and looked at her with pursed lips. "I want to ask him out, and I wanted to clear things up with you."

Rin shook his head wildly. "No way, that's not happening! You want to… DATE… Mikoshiba?"

"What do you mean 'no'?" Gou demanded, eyes narrowing. "I said I wanted to clear things up, not ask your permission."

Rin stood up, running his hands through his hair. "Gou… Why would you even want to date the captain?"

Gou stood up as well, folding her arms. "It's because he happens to be a kind person who actually seems to have an interest in me." Gou's voice was firm.

Rin grimaced, almost wanting to admit that she had a valid point. He didn't though, he kept arguing. "Gou, you could get any guy you wanted! Not that I would condone it at your age… but you could. _WHY_ Mikoshiba?"

"I just_ told _you why. It's because I find him interesting, sweet, and caring. I think there is potential for a relationship, and I intend to go for it." Gou huffed.

Rin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Nitori piped up, stepping away from his spot by his desk. "Rin-senpai… the captain's not a bad guy. I know that if he and Kou date, he'll take good care of her."

Rin looked at Nitori's gentle and reassuring face and slowly nodded. "I hate that you're probably right. I don't like the idea of you dating at such a young age… but I guess this is better than you dating some random jerk."

Gou smiled widely, reaching to hug her brother. "I'm glad we've come to an agreement, big brother." Her words were muffled by the fabric of Rin's shirt.

"Yeah… I guess so." Rin muttered. "But if he hurts you, you better know that he won't escape me."

"I know, big brother." Gou smiled, despite Rin's attempt at an intimidating threat.

Gou pulled away and smiled warmly at Nitori. "Thanks for your help, I knew if Rin wouldn't listen to me, he'd listen to you."

It was hard to miss the small blush that crept on to both boys' faces. Gou reminded herself to help set the two up after her own love life was sorted out.

"I'll see you two later!" Gou was back to her usually perky self. As she walked through the door, she looked over her shoulder for a brief moment. "Rin, please don't kill the captain before I get a chance to ask him out."

Rin grumbled something, but Gou was already out the door.

* * *

Two days later, Gou had gotten plenty of times to think things over. She had thought of Mikoshiba quite often, and it made her a bit anxious over the whole thing. Still, she didn't back away from her original plan.

However, waiting for the joint practice to end proved more difficult than intended. She stood in her usual spot near the wall, watching everyone swim and ogling at muscles. However, she noticed that her eyes would drift from the swimmers to Mikoshiba when he stood shouting orders, and they would stare incredibly hard at him when he swam.

The joint practice was nearly over, so while Gou waited for the Iwatobi swimmers to finish up, she went to get a drink from a nearby vending machine. As she returned, sipping the drink with one hand, she searched around for the captain. 'It's now or never, I suppose.' She thought, and even though she knew it was hardly a stretch to be asking out the captain, she was still a bit nervous.

Her eyes were lowered to the top of her drink as she reentered the pool deck, but she raised them slowly to look around. She moved her gaze around, and she spotted a familiar display of flaming red hair. Her eyes widened confidently as she started her trek towards him—

But then she saw it.

There was a girl with Mikoshiba. She was resting one hand lightly on the captains shoulder, and even from fifteen feet away Gou could hear the trace of a giggle from the girl. Both the girl and the captain's sides were facing Gou, so all she could make out was the tumbling black hair and what seemed to be deep green eyes. To put it lightly, the girl was gorgeous.

Gou took a step back, her foot tracing a bit of the floor as she watched the scene. She sighed softly to herself, turning away. She saw that her brother was still in the pool, luckily for her, because she had a destination in mind, and it would be for the best if Rin wasn't there.

* * *

She didn't let any tears fall as she made her way to her brother's room. She didn't even really want to cry, since she wasn't in any pain, she was just surprised.

She knocked quietly on the door, hoping that Nitori was here. She hadn't seen him in the pool by the end, so she hoped that he was in the room.

Luckily, the door swung open. Nitori smiled warmly at first, but his smile faded when he saw the slightly distressed look on Gou's face. "Kou-chan? Is something wrong?"

"Not really… just a bit shocked. Can I stay in here for a while?"

"Sure…" Nitori stepped aside to let her in. "Do you need to talk about anything…?"

"There's really nothing to say… I'm just kind of frazzled because I was going to ask out the captain today, but there was some other girl flirting with him."

Nitori's eyes widened, knowing that if Rin saw his sister right now he would probably kill Captain Mikoshiba. "Oh… I see."

"Yeah…" Gou sat on the edge of Rin's bed. "It's no big deal, honestly, I just didn't really wanna stay around the pool and watch it."

"Well, I wouldn't either..." Nitori wasn't so good with issues involving flirting and dating, but he was doing his best.

"Oh yeah, if Rin comes in here, try not to let him know about any of this. If he hears he may overreact and do something stupid." Gou muttered, chuckling dryly.

"I'm already way ahead of you on that one." Nitori responded warmly, giving a soft smile.

Just as Gou was about to speak again, there was a rough knock on the door. Both heads turned to look, but neither got up to answer it.

"Do you think that's Rin?" Gou whispered.

"Unless he forgot his keys, he wouldn't knock… maybe it's someone from your swim team looking for you." Nitori decided that it was a definite possibility, so he got up to answer the door.

Gou fiddled with the strap of her bag with was on the floor by her feet. She looked up to see who was at the door and her eyes widened.

"Seijuro-kun?" Gou stood up slowly. "What's going on?"

"I… Can I talk to you?" Mikoshiba gestured with a thumb behind him. "We can go in my room."

Gou glanced at Nitori, but shrugged. "Okay, sure."

With her hands behind her back Gou walked next to Mikoshiba to his room. When they entered, the smell of cologne stung her nose. Mikoshiba shut the door and sat on the bottom bunk of the bed, gesturing halfheartedly for Gou to sit as well. She did, pulling her legs up and crossing them together, getting comfortable as if the room were her second home.

"What's with the awkwardness, Seijuro? Is something the matter with you?"

"Isn't that my line?"

Gou titled her head. "Hmm? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I saw you today after practice, and it looked like you were coming over to me, but you just left."

_'Oh…' _ Gou thought. "I was coming to talk to you, but I didn't want to interrupt you." The words were spoken honestly, with no bitterness or sarcasm like some may expect.

"Interrupt me…?" It was Mikoshiba's turn to tilt his head. "Oh… when I was with that girl?"

Gou simply hummed a 'yes' and nodded.

"Well, I'm all ears now, what did you want to say?" Mikoshiba leaned back on two open palms on the space behind him.

"I don't think it's really relevant now." Gou murmured.

"What do you mean?"

_'Geez, he's not making this easy…' _ Gou almost rolled her eyes. "I don't know how to explain, exactly…"

"Give it a go; I'm sure I can figure it out."

Gou sighed, knowing she'd have to tell him. "Do you want to know the full truth?"

Mikoshiba nodded, leaning forward again, locking golden eyes with red ones.

"I was going over there to see if you wanted to go out with me, but it's beside the point if you have a girlfriend."

Mikoshiba's eyes widened. "Gi-girlfriend? No way, that was NOT my girlfriend."

Gou raised an eyebrow curiously. "Then… who was it?"

"I have no clue. She just showed up and started flirting with me. I couldn't get her to understand that I wasn't interested."

"Really…?" Gou mumbled, feeling a bit stupid for jumping to conclusions.

"Yes." Mikoshiba nodded vigorously. He suddenly became serious again, putting a hand on Gou's shoulder. "So… you were coming to ask me out?"

Gou nodded, barely looking into the bright pair of golden eyes that were gazing at her. "Yeah, I was. I know it sounds silly, considering I've acted quite cold to you at times… but I thought about it, and I find you to be a really great guy." Gou shut her eyes tightly, blush spreading on her cheeks. She had never expressed her feelings to someone this way.

The room was silent for a few seconds, seemingly like much longer to the both of them. Finally, Mikoshiba spoke up.

"Well, I would love to."

Gou looked up, eyes wide, wondering if she'd heard him right. "You—"

"I would love, love, _love_ to go out with you, Gou-chan."

Gou smiled so widely, even Nagisa couldn't beat it. "That's amazing, I'm so glad!" The blush spread more furiously, but it was full of happiness instead of embarrassment.

Mikoshiba swung his hand down and locked his fingers with Gou's, holding their intertwined hands up a bit. "I hope you know that you just made me the happiest guy on earth." Mikoshiba's smile could have lit up a starless sky for the entire world.

Gou's eyes were brimming with tears of happiness, so she simply nodded and buried her face into his shoulder.

"And you've made me the happiest girl."

* * *

AN: ((A "Free!" fic on my profile that isn't Rintori, what is witchcraft?)) - (Even so I managed to slip in SOME Rintori.)

Yeah, this is a bit choppy, but I'm not so good at writing Gou... oddly enough. I guess it's just because in comparison to the other guys, she isn't as main of a character. Either way, I hope this at least turned out decently! :D

Rate and review, please, it makes my day to see reviews and faves! 3

More fics to come soon (A Rintori one should be coming around tomorrow, and then I have some Regisa prompts floating around in my head!)

Enjoy!


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